On the ground in San Diego

You can’t ask for a better location for a final regular season road series than San Diego. The weather is always beautiful and the downtown area always has plenty to do. Although I will likely be too busy to do much this weekend.

Coming here immediately improved my mood after being in a middle seat for over four hours during the flight. I had John Fay to my immediate left, which was complete chance, and another gentleman to my right. The most interesting part of the flight is that Goldberg from WWE wrestling and the Celebrity Apprentice was on board. I accidentally mistweeted at first that it was Steve Austin — shows how much I know wrestling.

*Obviously, everyone is waiting for the NL Central clinch — which could very well happen on Saturday or Sunday. But there is another rather significant element to this series. The Reds need to beat the Padres to improve their seeding in the playoffs and they could be the team they meet in the first round. San Diego has a 2-1 advantage in the season series from April. If the Reds sweep, they would own that tiebreaker should they finished tied.

*If the postseason began today, the National League Division Series match-ups would be:

(The Padres, a half-game up on the Reds for the second-best record, play at L.A. tonight)

So — beating the Padres would greatly improve their chances at hosting a first-round series vs. the Braves, assuming they can hang on to the Wild Card. But a lot can change. The Giants are a half-game back in both the NL West and NL Wild Card standings.

*For for a complete look at all of the playoff tiebreaker scenarios, my colleague John Schlegel wrote a breakdown.

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